November 2012

November 30, 2012

Fort Worth schools’ attorney is leaving the Tarrant County school district to become the first in-house attorney for the Irving school district.

Bertha Bailey Whatley, Fort Worth schools’ chief legal counsel, will represent the Irving schools superintendent, certain staff members and the board of trustees. Whatley will be paid $141,000 and is expected to start her new job on Jan. 7, Irving schools spokesman Billy Rudolph said.

Whatley joined the Fort Worth school district in March 1998 and is paid $138,000. Her last day on the job is expected to be Dec. 21, Fort Worth schools spokesman Clint Bond said.

Whatley, the lone finalist for the Irving position, was introduced to the Irving school board at a special meeting on Thursday. Trustees did not have to vote on the hire because Whatley is an at-will employee and not under contract, Rudolph said.

Fort Worth schools superintendent Walter Dansby said in a statement that the new position is closer to Whatley's home in Dallas and that he appreciated her years of service.

"Mrs. Whatley has been a valued and respected colleague and we are all saddened by her departure, but wish her only the very best," Dansby's statement said.

According to the Fort Worth school district, Whatley told Fort Worth trustees on Thursday: "I'm appreciative of the many years I've spent working with the board and it's been a wonderful experience."

November 28, 2012

Sagamore Hill Elementary School has won $1,000 for new physical education equipment after coming in first place in the FitWorthKids Challenge.

Teams of students in grades 3 through 8 who attend 81 Fort Worth school district campuses participated in an eight-week contest. They worked with physical education teachers to keep track how much exercise they did and the number of servings of water, fruit and vegetables.

At Sagamore Hill Elementary, in southeast Fort Worth, students reported that its 278 students completed 1,430,268 minutes of physical activity. In second place was J.P. Elder Middle School, which won $750 and Western Hills Elementary, which won $500.

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price told students the news at a Tuesday assembly.

November 16, 2012

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck, right, surprised UT Arlington
President James D. Spaniolo, left, on Friday with the renaming of part of Pecan
Street that runs through the University’s new College Park District. That
portion of the thoroughfare is now called "Spaniolo Drive." A new street sign was unveiled Friday and was part of the university’s Homecoming 2012 weekend.

Spaniolo, who announced his
retirement earlier this year, is credited with collaborating with city and
community leaders to revitalize the downtown Arlington.

Texas Woman's University Chancellor and President Ann Stuart has announced she is retiring from the university. She will lead the university until a successor is named, according to a news release.

The news was announced Friday during a TWU Board of Regents meeting at the university's Houston campus. Students, faculty, staff and alumni were alerted via an email sent by Stuart.

"When I came to TWU, I understood that I was to be a steward of TWU's past with the responsibility for positioning the university for a strong future," she said in the news release. "Together with the faculty, staff, administration and students, we have enhanced the learning environment and the overall reputation of this historic institution."

November 13, 2012

TCU's Board of Trustees approved a 5.8 percent tuition increase for undergraduates for the 2013-2014 academic school year. Tuition will be $36,500 next year for undergraduates.

"Our students desire a high quality educational experience that includes a personalized setting with a low student to faculty ratio, facilities equipped with cutting edge technology and an exceptional on-campus living environment," Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. said in a press release. "The results of this kind of experience are evident in the number of students who find jobs, go on to graduate school and, ultimately, become leaders in the global community. At the same time, we must continue investing in financial aid to help those who need financial support to obtain a TCU degree."

Institutional financial aid will be increased by 7.5 percent or about $7 million.

The increase is supposed to help pay for faculty and staff, facilities and resources such as computer labs and network upgrades.

"The University of Texas at Arlington is a tremendous institution with exceptional students, accomplished faculty, dedicated staff and an impressive leadership team," Croson said, in a press release. "I'm looking forward to building on the strong reputation of the UT Arlington College of Business and working to attract new, philanthropic support for the college."

Crosson was a UT Dallas economics professor and the director of the UT Dallas Negotiations Center. She has also served at the National Science Foundations's division director for Social and Economic Sciences.

November 12, 2012

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board released several priorities for lawmakers to consider of the 2013 legislative session. Among major issues is a proposal to expand access To TEXAS Grants. The THECB proposes offering institutions more flexibility so more students can tap into TEXAS Grants.

THECB states that the number of students eligible for the programs have increased 88 percent over the last five years and the state needs to invest about $1.4B to cover all eligible students over the next two years.

To find out more about proposed Texas higher education priorities proposed, go here.

Parents, faculty members, staffers and students are encouraged to participate, and the community is invited to contribute, as well. The items collected will be distributed to food pantries in the Mansfield Common Ground Network, a community partner of the school district's.

November 08, 2012

Before the L.D. Bell High band took the field for their performance in the state marching finals on Tuesday, drum majors gave the students a pep talk.

"Then the band directors came up and explained to us what we got (in prelims) and told us they were very proud of us and to do our best in the finals," said Bell's head drum major Morgan McLallen.

"It
was really emotional doing your very last performance of the
competitive season. Everyone felt that they had done their best. It was
just a really good end to the season," said McLallen, a senior who plans
to study music education at college next year.

The
300-member band from Hurst was among a record 38 Texas high school bands that
competed in the University Interscholastic League's state marching contest for
Class 5A held Tuesday at the San Antonio Alamodome. See results here.

Bands from North
Texas did well at state. The Marcus High School band from Flower Mound
won its fourth consecutive championship in Class 5A and Hebron High,
another band from Lewisville, took second place. Bell earned the same
total score as Austin Bowie High, but Bell took third place based on UIL
tie-breaking rules, said Richard Floyd, UIL's music director.

In
the Class 3A contest on Monday that drew 21 bands, the Argyle High band
won its third straight state championship and it's fifth title since
2003.
(R:Argyle High drum majors. Via Lynn Blodgett)

Springtown High School earned the right to advance from the
preliminary round to the finals for the first time. The top 10 bands
advance to the finals after the preliminary round.

"It was great. We had a blast," said Springtown band director Chris McLellan. "This is our third time in the state marching contest and first time in finals so that was a new experience."

Students participating in the National Student Mock Election project to learn about the democratic process chose Barack Obama to win a second term as U.S president.

Results were released late Tuesday, after the voting period was extended after super storm Sandy closed some schools on the east coast.

Results posted on the organization's website show that Obama, a Democrat, won 460 electoral votes to Republican Mitt Romney's 78 electoral votes in the student election. The winner needed 270. In the general election on Tuesday, Obama won 303 electoral votes. Romney won 206, which included all 38 electoral votes from Texas.

Among Texas students participating in the mock election, Obama won 70.7 percent of the vote over Romney's 26.8 percent. In the general election, Romney prevailed in Texas, taking 57.2 percent of the vote to Obama's 41.4 percent.

In mock election results for Texas a race for the U.S. senate, Republican Ted Cruz took 42.8 percent of the student vote to Democrat Paul Sadler's 37.9 percent.

Texas students identified the economy as the most important issue in the election followed by health care. Issues were: